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Jonathan Tasini, the longshot Democratic, anti-war challenger to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, today accused NY1 playing a role in “legalized election corruption” for refusing to let him participate in a televised debate because he hasn’t raised at least $500,000.Â

Tasini’s campaign said he’s also been told by NY1 that he can’t participate in an Aug. 22 “town hall” meeting of U.S. Senate candidates.

The problem is that NY1 has set a participation thresholdÂ for statewide candidatesÂ of $500,000 raised and 5 percent in the polls. TasiniÂ received 12 percent to Clinton’s 79 percent in last week’sÂ Siena poll (higher than Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi’s 9), and successfully petitioned his way onto the primary ballot, gathering far more than the required 15,000 signatures, but has only raisedÂ about $150,000 to date.

Tasini’s campaign manager Stephanie Cannon said she was informed via email by NY1 Political Director BobÂ Hardt that while the polling threshold is longstanding, the money requirement is new this year. Hardt referred questions to the station’s PR person, and I am awaiting a reply.

At a press conference this afternoon at a Manhattan bar (The Main Street Cafe, near City Hall), Tasini noted that a recent Marist poll found 70 percent of registered Democrats think the Iraq War should be a major campaign issue and 62 percent say they’ll vote for an anti-war candidate.

“Rather than act as a promoter of greater speech and greater knowledge for its viewers and the public at large, NY1 is effectively acting as a cenor,” Tasini said.”It has decided the price of admission to allow the voters to hear my views is half a million dollars. Legalized election corruption is getting a huge pat on the back from NY1.”

Tasini said that this sets up “a classic anti-democratic conundrum” – people need information to make sound choices when they vote, but they can’t get that information unless a candidate has enough money to get it out there.

“The vast amounts of money are corrupting the political system are making it impossble for voters to make those informed choices,” Tasini said. “And the media is aiding and abetting that corruption by deciding, based on financial barometers, who should have a platform.”

Tasini said he thinks the threshold for debate participation should be whether a candidate can get on the ballot (the criteria of the League of Women Voters of New York State, which is holding a number of debates).

Author Barbara Ehrenreich, a friend of Tasini’s, attended the press conference, which drew a fair amount of media attention, including from The New York Times and The Village Voice.

NY1 was,Â not surprisingly, nowhere to beÂ seen. Â

UPDATE: Edward Pachetti, NY1′s PR manager, sent the following statement attributed to Hardt:

“NY1 News is producing the most ambitious series of political debates
and town hall meetings this election season. As part of the staging of these events, NY1 established criteria to identify which candidates
would be invited to participate in these events.

The criteria are that a candidate must poll at least five percent (including margin of error) in a recognized independent poll and would need to have spent and/or raised $500,000. All candidates who have met these criteria have been invited to participate.”

It’s that AND/OR thing I find confusing. Doesn’t that mean one is just as good as the other?

Pachetti said the money criteria is not new, contrary to Cannon’s statement above. He said that standard has been used in “all NY1 debates and town meetings.”

I asked whether Clinton and the two GOP candidates – KT McFarland and John Spencer – had confirmedÂ they wouldÂ attend the Aug. 22 town hall meeting, and Pachetti responded: “We expect all three candidates to be there,” adding: “we are still working on everything…I anticipate providing that info to you by the end of the week.”

Is it me, or are these debates/town hall meetings starting to seem like a huge headache? Between this flap and the so-called “rage backstage” controversy of the Suozzi/Spitzer debate last week, these events are certainly raising Bob Hardt’s profile, if nothing else.

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